WEEK 3 ● Day 4
READ PSALM 34:12-14
A few years back, one of our kids was in a massive bike accident on the way to school. He was transferred from a nearby hospital to the main Children’s Hospital campus in Denver. Because I had our youngest kids with me (who were all tiny at the time), I wasn’t allowed to ride in the ambulance with him, nor was I allowed in the emergency room with them in tow. Crazy with worry about the extent of his injuries and devastated that our sweet seven-year-old was facing it all alone, I finally entered the sliding glass doors into the hospital after speeding home and dropping the girls off with a friend.
I remember riding up the elevator with two women and a child around the age of ten or so. They were all laughing and teasing one another, and I was incensed. How can they possibly be so happy? Don’t they know where we are? Don’t they know that there are children all over this hospital who are sick and dying? How dare they joke around. My first grader is bleeding internally, his liver is lacerated and mangled —and they act like my whole world isn’t crashing down around me.
My internal monologue went from worried to slightly hostile as we continued up, floor by floor. I was so full of grief and heartache that I wanted to tell off these happy people. I was in deep anguish and I was ready to fight. I didn’t care with whom.
Sometimes when we’re hurting, we want others to feel our pain too. As we know, “hurt people hurt people.”[1] And yet Psalm 34 helps encourage us not to:
12-13 Do you want to live a long, good life,
enjoying the beauty that fills each day?
Then never speak a lie or allow wicked words
to come from your mouth.
14 Keep turning your back on every sin,
and make “peace” your life motto.
Practice being at peace with everyone.
1. Instead of letting our hurt rule our reactions, what are we to do instead?
2. How can we do that?
Before we get to the key for how to not be ruled by hurt, we need to look a little more closely at Psalm 34:12 (ESV):
What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
Well, sure, of course David is saying he loves many days . . . God just rescued him out of a tight spot, remember? If I’d just escaped from my enemies, I’d love that day too. Makes sense that he’s in a massively good mood. What can we learn from this even if we’re still waiting for that rescue, though?
I just went to the Interlinear for this verse in the BLB and discovered a few things. Let’s first see what it says under the Hebrew word for life, chay (חַי, pronounced khai).
3. Scroll down through the various sections here in the Interlinear section and write down the words that jump out at you in this definition:
Merry, revival, appetite, community, fresh. These are words that would describe someone in a vibrant season of life, yes? Someone with an appetite for fresh growth and vitality! We’ll come back to this, but let’s keep going for now.
Once again in the BLB, click on the phrase length of days in the Interlinear. When I think of loving length of days, I think of summertime. The sun sets later, and it’s warm enough to sit outside after dinner and watch the kids play, an ice tea or lemonade in hand. But some days are so long, I pray bedtime comes quickly so we can move on to a fresh start in the morning.
4. Looking at the Strong’s Definition of this Interlinear section, write down several words or phrases for length of days, the Hebrew word yowm (יוֹם, pronounced yōm):
For the most part, the words used here easily define length of day, right? “The hours between sunrise and sunset,” things like that. But I also see the phrase “the warm hours.”[2] This brings me right back to that summertime feeling, sitting on the patio after dinner. “The warm hours” makes me think, Yes! I’ll desire life (merriment, and an appetite for fresh growth and vitality) during the comfortable hours. The warm hours where I can sit and bask in its glow.
But here’s the thing: That’s not real life. We’re not always in a season of warmth where we sit with a cool glass of lemonade in our hands. So how can we still “love many days” during a difficult season?
Verse 13 gives us the answer, telling us, “Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.” But we probably wouldn’t label my illogical anger at those people in the elevator as deceit, so let’s dig into this word a little deeper. Head to the BLB and click on Psalm 34:13, tapping on the Hebrew word for deceit (mirmah; מִרְמָה, pronounced meer-mah) in the Interlinear.
5. What definitions do you see under the Outline of Biblical Usage section?
Okay, so it says, “deceit, treachery.” Hmm . . . treachery? Surely that doesn’t describe what I was feeling in that elevator. Is it?
Let’s dig a little deeper. I’d like you to scroll down to the Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon and look for the word mirmah. In fact, I’ll make it even easier for you by providing it this time.[3]
6. Circle the phrase fraudulent weights. What do these words indicate to you?
My grief was so unbearable that I was trying to place it on the shoulders of everyone else around me. Sometimes we can be so consumed with our own misery that we can fraudulently put the weight of it onto other people.
7. When have you placed the weight of your own emotions on others, unfairly?
So really, we see that this verse has less to do with the actual act of lying and more about the position of our hearts. As we walk through painful times, it’s crucial that we don’t heave our hurt onto others because we’re miserable. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be vulnerable and authentic with our friends and family —we definitely should not bottle things up inside and pretend we’re fine. But by the same token, we shouldn’t spew venom, thinking it’ll make us feel better.
8. Verse 14 says to turn away from evil and do good, and to not only seek peace but pursue it. What’s the difference between seek and pursue? Don’t look it up, quite yet. Just write what you think it means in your own words.
Let’s head to the BLB one last time today. This time though, I’ll provide the Interlinear information for you. Underline or circle any words for seek that stand out as significant here:
Strong’s Definitions
בָּקַשׁ bâqash, [pronounced] baw-kash’; a primitive root; to search out (by any method, specifically in worship or prayer); by implication, to strive after: —ask, beg, beseech, desire, enquire, get, make inquisition, procure, (make) request, require, seek (for).[4]
9. Now underline or circle any words for pursue that stand out to you as significant:
Strong’s Definitions
רָדַף râdaph, [pronounced] raw-daf’; a primitive root; to run after (usually with hostile intent; figuratively [of time] gone by): —chase, put to flight, follow (after, on), hunt, (be under) persecute(-ion, -or), pursue(-r).[5]
10. Replacing seek and pursue with the synonyms you underlined above, how could you put verse 14 into your own words?
Even if we’re sitting in a wintery season or one full of ache and grief, we can strive after peace and chase it, following along as if we’re on a hunt for it. Peace isn’t something that just happens —it’s something we fight for.
This word peace ( שָׁלוֹם, shalowm) also means completeness, contentment, and friendship with God. But there’s so much more to this word than even that. Earlier in our study today when we read out of The Passion translation, I noticed a little [a] at the end of verse 14, which corresponds to this footnote text:
The pictographic symbols for the word shalom (shin, lamed, vav, mem) read “Destroy the authority that binds to chaos.” The noun shalom is derived from the verbal root shalam, which means “to restore,” in the sense of replacing or providing what is needed in order to make someone or something whole and complete. So shalom is used to describe those of us who have been provided all that is needed to be whole and complete and break off all authority that would attempt to bind us to chaos.
We need to pursue wholeness through our hard situations, even in our pain. We need to chase after our friendship with God, even when things are going opposite of the way we think they should. We need to know that God is with us in the painful winter seasons, just as He is in our summery sit-in-the-backyard ones.
As we wrap up today, I encourage you to write a prayer asking God for tangible ways to search out peace and never give up chasing after it. Where are the places you find yourself bound to chaos? Ask Christ to be your shalom, no matter what circumstance and season you find yourself in.
Amen.